Certain respiratory disorders, such as cystic fibrosis, emphysema, asthma, and chronic bronchitis, may cause mucous and other secretions to build up in a person's lungs. It is desirable, and sometimes essential, that the secretion build-up be substantially removed from the lungs to enable improved breathing. For example, Cystic fibrosis is an hereditary disease that affects the mucous secreting glands of a person, causing an excessive production of mucous. The mucous fills in the person's lungs and must be reduced daily to prevent infection and enable respiration by the person.
Currently there is no cure for cystic fibrosis. Current treatment of cystic fibrosis includes an aerosol therapy to assist lung drainage and repeated pounding on the upper torso of the person to loosen and expel the mucous. This daily treatment may take several hours and requires a trained individual to apply the pounding treatment.
Pneumatic and mechanical systems have been developed for loosening and removing secretions from a person's lungs. In one pneumatic system, a bladder is positioned around the upper torso of the patient. One or more hoses connect the bladder with a mechanism for generating air pulses in the bladder. The pulsing of the bladder provides chest compressions to the patient. The pulsing frequency is independent of and higher than the patient's breathing rate. One such system, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,263, is a valve-operated, open-loop system that requires the patient to interact with the system throughout the treatment period.
Other systems include mechanical vibrators. Some vibrator systems are attached to the person's torso, while others are hand-held. Vibrators and other direct mechanical compression devices are likely to be heavier than pneumatic compression devices.
A chest compression device, as is the case with medical devices generally, must meet a variety of requirements. First, the chest compression device must be safe to operate. The patient receiving treatment should not be able to adjust the device to create unsafe treatment conditions. Failure of device components must not create unsafe conditions. The chest compression device should provide some user control, allowing the device to be customized to the needs of individual users. The device should be easy to understand and operate by the user; detailed training and complicated controls increase the cost of the treatment. Finally, the device should minimize intrusion into the daily activities of the user.